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Climbing Insanity

I think I might need to see someone about psychotherapy. Yes, I admit I MAY have a problem. Let me explain. This might take a minute.

Last Sunday or Monday, the 7 day weather forecast called for a bunch of rain. Pretty much every day. I thought, “Hmmm….rain. I don’t like riding in rain.” I do it all the time, I just don’t care for it and when I do it, I try to ride a mtb or cx since I equate those bikes with dirt, mud, etc. I figured I may as well do a little climbing while I’m at it.

My plan was to sneak in a road ride Tuesday (I’m getting to the “therapy needed” part soon) as the rain wasn’t really supposed to hit until Tuesday night. GREAT!!So, I realize there’s a lot of people that hate the Strava app. Whatever. I personally love it. I’m a data freak and a schedule freak and the app satisfies both of those tendencies. Each month Strava throws out challenges. This month, one of the challenges is to climb 28,000 feet in February. No problem! I do that just in casual riding.

Here’s where the crazy kicks in. While riding the previously mentioned road ride, I was doing a bit of climbing and suddenly thought, “Hey! Why don’t I try to get the 28,000 feet in the first HALF of February?”

See? I have a problem. Again, I admit it. I think I’m sick.

Carrying on with this new (somewhat ill-advised goal) in mind I set my sights on the rest of the week climbing, in rain, on a mtb. Cool!

Wednesday turned out to be NOT raining when I was off work. I promptly scrapped the mtb idea for the day and rode to Jville where I climbed up and over Old Military road twice before heading back home just because that seemed like a good idea.

Thursday, Derek (Unreal Stud) and I planned a shop ride called “Unreal Cycles’ 5 and 9 Night Time Slime Climb” to be held on Roxy Ann at 6 pm in the rain. Hence, the name. We were pleasantly surprised to have 11 people show up to the first planned shop ride in a long time! But, no rain. Not complaining. Just saying. The wind however was blowing at a good 20 mph steady with gusts in the 40’s. We had to pedal hard into the wind on what is usually a very fast descent back down the mountain.

The only photo taken that night is this one which I shamelessly stole off Facebook from Rob Dudley.

Saturday and Sunday again were supposed to be washouts. No dice. Saturday, Derek and I did another wind-filled ride on Roxy before he headed off to open up shop.

Sunday was going to be all about elevation gain as I was looking to get 4000′ in before my day off the bike on Monday. We set up another group ride for John’s Peak and were again surprised to have 9 people show up at 8:30 am on a Sunday morning!

Eventually, everyone else peeled off at various points to enjoy the awesome trails John’s Peak has to offer. I kept climbing. Yeah, I have a problem.

And, all of this climbing because of my dislike of road rides in the rain. Well, guess what. I didn’t once get caught in the rain until about 10 minutes from the end of my ride today.

Whatever.

I think the drought inducing weather returns this week, so I hope to get my miles back up as well as hit the stupid frickin’ 28,000 goal before the 15th. I’m at 14,000+ right now.